freckles make me strong.
Month
The Columbia City Cinema is a local independent movie theater in the Rainier Valley. They have been struggling to stay in business against cinema giants like AMC. It has been a rough couple months for them and it looks like they may have to close their doors if they can’t raise some major money soon.
The deal is this: you can help by grabbing a buddy or two and heading down to see a movie this weekend. The popcorn is award-winningly delicious; remember to grab some while you’re there.
If you have spare change lying around you can also make donations in person or online.
Tell a friend, Save the Cinema!
Si se puede!
My iPod is, hopefully only temporarily, inoperable so I have been exploring the world of Internet radio. Usually I would be all over some Pandora, but the site is blocked at work so I am getting more radio creative. I was just listening to this station called “Reunion Radio”.
The first song to come up was Enrique Iglesias’ Hero. This has reminded me of a couple of things:
1. High school, not unlike Enrique, should not be taken too seriously. All I can think of is lip dubs and Jennifer Love-Hewitt. Like I said, nothing serious.
2. Sometimes reminiscing is just uncomfortable.
3. Many things sound better in Spanish.
heyitseva:
houseofmind:
Coming from a computer science background, I must say that it is an interesting question. The comments section is highly recommended.
The new RadioLab talks about this. Super interesting.
I was just listening to this. The stories about physical limits are also intriguing. I especially enjoyed the piece about the people who bike across country for ten day sleeping no more than an hour a day and use hallucinations to get themselves across the finish line.
AM JAMZ is WNYC’s crowdsourcing music project that compiles what New Yorkers listen to in the morning on the way to work.
I just found this completely rad project. The page features a new short playlist of someone else’s morning routine each day. There is some inspiration to be had here, folks.
My favorite new finds so far:
These New Puritans - “Attack Music”
Walter Jones - “Living Without Your Love”
Little Boots - “New in Town”
What are the rest of you waking up to?
Our state lawmakers will be working in Olympia to decide if they should raise taxes on cigarettes, candy, pop and beer.
ACTION: Get a message through to your lawmakers. Send an e-mail and urge them to vote YES on a budget that protects education from even more drastic cuts.
Lawmakers have until Tuesday to finalize nearly 4-weeks of negotiations on a revenue proposal that raises $800 million to protect preschools, public schools, colleges and basic services that kids and families depend on. The revenue would come from closing tax loopholes and tax increases on some services and items like cigarettes, candy, pop and beer.
If lobbyists succeed in blocking the revenue proposal, then:
• School budget cuts will be even worse. Thousands of teachers will be laid off leading to even larger class sizes. All-day kindergarten, tutoring programs and teaching aides will be cut or eliminated; and
• Gov. Gregoire could have no choice but to make 20% cuts across all schools, colleges and universities. That’s like a double levy failure for the entire state.
ACTION: Send an e-mail to your state lawmakers. Urge them to vote YES on a budget that protects education from even more drastic cuts.
Kelly Munn
League of Education Voters
This morning I was really tired. I put in my contacts at about 6 am and by 9:30 the right one had become so uncomfortable my right eye began to tear up. I went to the restroom to wash it off and put it back in. As I took out my right contact I realized I had two contacts in the same eye. No wonder it was uncomfortable. Idiot, I thought, you put them both in the same eye. I looked at both contacts and took a random guess as to which belonged in which eye. I put the misplaced contact in my left eye. I blinked, things were still blurry. It must be inside out, I thought. I took out the contact and again discovered there were two. At this point I have three contacts and no clue. What goes where? I took a couple of guesses until I got things right-ish.
Here is where the genius comes in. My contacts already have numbers on the edges you can look at to see if they are inside out but, what if we took it one step further? I think we should have blue for left and red for right. Everyone would look a little high but there would be less guess and checking when you are really tired or distracted of whatever.
Acuvue, please make this happen. Until then, I promise to try to get more sleep and pay more attention.
Word from the Scrabble makers at Mattel is that proper nouns will be fair game for Scrabble players as of this summer. [UPDATE: Not so fast concerning this “rule change.”]
The BBC reported the change of rules for the 72-year-old game with the following explanation from a spokesperson for Scrabble co-rights-holder Mattel:
A spokeswoman for the company said the use of proper nouns would “add a new dimension” to Scrabble and “introduce an element of popular culture into the game”.
She said: “This is one of a number of twists and challenges included that we believe existing fans will enjoy and will also enable younger fans and families to get involved.”
However, Mattel said it would not be doing away with the old rules altogether.
It will continue to sell a board with the original rules.
A new version of Scrabble will be released in July.
Kotaku has reached out to Mattel for further comment on the rules change as well as to EA, maker of Scrabble games for the iPhone, to find out how the changed rules will affect the company’s current and future Scrabble products.
[UPDATE 2: The “new rules” for Scrabble have been clarified in subsequent reports as a new release of Scrabble called “Scrabble Trickster,” slated for release by Mattel in the U.K. “Players will be able to boost scores with trick cards allowing them to spell words backwards, steal points, use proper nouns and break all the usual news,” according to a listing for the game in ToyNews.
The Canadian Press reports that the new rules offered in the new Trickster spin-off will not be released in North America, where Mattel rival Hasbro controls the Scrabble license. A spokesperson for EA, which releases video game versions of Scrabble in the U.S. was unaware of any Trickster release for the U.S. Hasbro and Mattel have not responded to requests for comment.]
The Daily Mail already reports that some fans are angry, including the one who said: “They’re dumbing down a classic.”
I am horrified indeed. Seriously, why change a classic just because “younger fans” find it to be a challenge? Get smarter, kids.